Portable aggregated information calculation and injection for application containers

ABSTRACT

Embodiments for aggregated information calculation and injection for application containers by one or more processors. Prior to commencing execution of an application inside a working container, a temporary container having an equivalent application template or container template as the working container is started. A first instance of the application is instantiated and executed from inside the temporary container. Relevant information, obtained during the execution of the first application instance from inside the temporary container, and relevant information from a host associated with the application, is extracted. The relevant information from the host and the temporary container is aggregated. A second instance of the application is executed and the aggregated information is injected into the working container.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a Continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/441,526, filed on Feb. 24, 2017.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention

The present invention relates in general to computing systems, and moreparticularly to, various embodiments for providing applicationinformation management in a containerized environment.

Description of the Related Art

In today's interconnected and complex society, computers andcomputer-driven equipment are more commonplace. Processing devices, withthe advent and further miniaturization of integrated circuits, have madeit possible to be integrated into a wide variety of personal, business,health, home, education, and other devices. Accordingly, the use ofcomputers, network appliances, and similar data processing devicescontinue to proliferate throughout society.

Application “containerization” is an operating system level (OS-level)virtualization method for deploying and running distributed applicationswithout launching an entire virtual machine (VM) for each application.Instead, multiple isolated systems are run on a single control host andaccess a single operating system kernel. The application containers holdthe components such as files, libraries, and environment configurationnecessary to run the desired software. Containerization may result inefficiency gains in memory, processing, and storage compared totraditional virtualization.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Various embodiments for aggregated information calculation and injectionfor application containers by one or more processors, are provided. Inone embodiment, by way of example only, a method comprises, prior tocommencing execution of an application inside a working container:starting a temporary container having an equivalent application templateor container template as the working container; instantiating andexecuting a first instance of the application inside the temporarycontainer; extracting relevant information obtained during execution ofthe first application instance from inside the temporary container andrelevant information from a host associated with the application;calculating aggregated information based on the extracted relevantinformation from inside the temporary container and from the host; andcommencing execution of a second instance of the application andinjecting the calculated aggregated information into the workingcontainer thereby efficiently propagating configuration attributes ofthe application into the working container.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order that the advantages of the invention will be readilyunderstood, a more particular description of the invention brieflydescribed above will be rendered by reference to specific embodimentsthat are illustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that thesedrawings depict only typical embodiments of the invention and are nottherefore to be considered to be limiting of its scope, the inventionwill be described and explained with additional specificity and detailthrough the use of the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram depicting an exemplary computing nodeaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an additional block diagram depicting an exemplary cloudcomputing environment according to an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 3 is an additional block diagram depicting abstraction model layersaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a combination block/flowchart diagram depicting exemplarysystems for injecting cluster host information into an applicationcontainer in accordance with aspects of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram depicting an exemplary required data structureof components in accordance with aspects of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart diagram of an exemplary method for implementing anapplication container control logic, in accordance with aspects of thepresent invention;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart diagram of an exemplary method for implementing aninjection agent, in accordance with aspects of the present invention;and

FIG. 8 is a flowchart diagram of an exemplary method for aggregatedinformation calculation and injection for application containers by oneor more processors, again in accordance with aspects of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

As aforementioned, application “containerization” is an operating systemlevel (OS-level) virtualization method for deploying and runningdistributed applications without launching an entire virtual machine(VM) for each application. Instead, multiple isolated systems are run ona single control host and access a single operating system kernel. Theapplication containers hold the components such as files, libraries, andenvironment configuration necessary to run the desired software.Application containers place less strain on the overall computingresources available, as they share the operating system kernel, and mayalso share resources such as storage and networking.

Containerization may result in efficiency gains in memory, processing,and storage compared to traditional virtualization. Because applicationcontainers do not have the overhead required by VM's, it is possible tosupport many more containers on the same infrastructure. Applicationcontainers may also be migrated to other computing environments, such ascomputing systems, clouds, or other environments without requiring codechanges. Accordingly, a potential benefit of application containersincludes portability across various platforms.

Thus, application containers enable users to create, execute, isolateand scale applications in a light-weight, flexible and portable manner,and, as aforementioned, users can deploy these application containers ina variety of computing environments and/or on multiple computingdevices. For example, a user may encapsulate a traditional host basedapplication and its dependencies such as libraries, configuration files,entitlement information, etc. into one application container or a groupof application containers. These containers can be deployed to a varietyof contexts such as a private computing cluster or a public cloud.

By design, containers are isolated from the deployment environment inwhich they are running in aspects such as their namespaces, availableresources, file system, environment variables and configuration.However, there are cases where it is useful to share information betweenthe container environment and the host environment in which it runs forvarious purposes. Following are two example use cases illustratingvarious techniques for resolving this issue and further challengescreated in doing so.

One example is to apply host level data access control insideapplication containers. Some embodiments of application containerssupport data volumes mounted inside containers and decouple thelifecycle of data from the lifecycle of the containers, to enableapplications running inside the container to persist data. However, theisolation of a container, and its access to data volumes from the hostenvironment it runs in, presents a problem for applying access controlto data on such volumes. For instance, in POSIX-based file systems,security and access control are primarily based on file permissions: asystem administrator can give different read, write and executeprivileges to the owner of the file, the assigned group of file, andother users. Specific access control permissions can thereby be grantedto individual users in addition to groups of users, and advancedpermissions also exist to enable users to run an application with thepermissions of the application's owner or group, respectively.

Unfortunately, due to the isolated nature of an application container,the user namespace inside the container is inherently different from theuser space of the host in which the container is running. Therefore,when a host data volume is mounted inside an application container, thefile permissions and access control rules, which are carefully designedand enforced for host users, will be compromised or completelyinvalidated, inside the container. Failure to correctly interpret andenforce host access control imperatives inside the container presents aproblem for implementing data security and access control in containers.

Another example is dynamic configuration of applications running insidecontainers. Many applications require configuration information to bepartly or wholly calculated dynamically based on information retrievedfrom the host. Configuration information stored inside containers is, bydesign, static and isolated from the host environment. Therefore, afurther case of the above problem is how to combine the configurationinformation inside a container with host level information to calculatedynamic configuration information for applications running inside acontainer.

The mechanisms of the illustrated embodiments hence provide solutions tothe underlying dilemma discussed in which a variety of run timeinformation must be calculated based on information inside a containerand from the host environment, and such run time information must beprovided back into the container prior to the execution of theapplications inside the container. These mechanisms include suchfunctionality as to start a transient application container of the samecontainer template that would be used by the actual working container,extract and calculate relevant information according to thespecification in the application template and inject this informationback into the actual working container.

The advantage of such functionality includes (1) Portability: theillustrated embodiments assume no preexisting knowledge of theunderlying system or application container; (2) Run time resolution:information is retrieved on-demand and no hard coded information isneeded; (3) Self-reflection: the illustrated embodiments can enable theapplication container to understand the relevant host information; and(4) Security: host information is only exposed inside the container on aneed-to-know basis.

Additional aspects of the present invention and attendant benefits willbe further described, following.

It should be noted that the term “application container”, as usedherein, generally refers to any software technology that provides anencapsulated application in a contained environment that is isolatedfrom other applications running within the operating system. Applicationcontainers are generally more light-weight, compared to traditionalvirtual machines which usually host an entire operating system.Application containers, on the other hand, reuse the host operatingsystem kernel, and possibly other resources such as storage andnetworking. An application software stack and all its requiredcomponents are packaged into a container template, which is a basis forcreating running containers based on the template. These templates maybe stored in a container templates library that is hosted either locallyor can be retrieved remotely using application programming interfaces.

In addition, the term “application”, as used herein, generally refers toany type or form of software, file, and/or executable code that may beinstalled, run, deployed and/or implemented on a computing system.Examples of applications include, without limitation, internetapplications, database systems, communication systems, text and numberprocessing applications, etc.

Further, it is understood in advance that although this disclosureincludes a detailed description on cloud computing, implementation ofthe teachings recited herein are not limited to a cloud computingenvironment. Rather, embodiments of the present invention are capable ofbeing implemented in conjunction with any other type of computingenvironment now known or later developed.

Cloud computing is a model of service delivery for enabling convenient,on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computingresources (e.g. networks, network bandwidth, servers, processing,memory, storage, applications, virtual machines, and services) that canbe rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort orinteraction with a provider of the service. This cloud model may includeat least five characteristics, at least three service models, and atleast four deployment models.

Characteristics are as follows:

On-demand self-service: a cloud consumer can unilaterally provisioncomputing capabilities, such as server time and network storage, asneeded automatically without requiring human interaction with theservice's provider.

Broad network access: capabilities are available over a network andaccessed through standard mechanisms that promote use by heterogeneousthin or thick client platforms (e.g., mobile phones, laptops, and PDAs).

Resource pooling: the provider's computing resources are pooled to servemultiple consumers using a multi-tenant model, with different physicaland virtual resources dynamically assigned and reassigned according todemand. There is a sense of location independence in that the consumergenerally has no control or knowledge over the exact location of theprovided resources but may be able to specify location at a higher levelof abstraction (e.g., country, state, or datacenter).

Rapid elasticity: capabilities can be rapidly and elasticallyprovisioned, in some cases automatically, to quickly scale out andrapidly released to quickly scale in. To the consumer, the capabilitiesavailable for provisioning often appear to be unlimited and can bepurchased in any quantity at any time.

Measured service: cloud systems automatically control and optimizeresource use by leveraging a metering capability at some level ofabstraction appropriate to the type of service (e.g., storage,processing, bandwidth, and active user accounts). Resource usage can bemonitored, controlled, and reported providing transparency for both theprovider and consumer of the utilized service.

Service Models are as follows:

Software as a Service (SaaS): the capability provided to the consumer isto use the provider's applications running on a cloud infrastructure.The applications are accessible from various client devices through athin client interface such as a web browser (e.g., web-based e-mail).The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloudinfrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, storage,or even individual application capabilities, with the possible exceptionof limited user-specific application configuration settings.

Platform as a Service (PaaS): the capability provided to the consumer isto deploy onto the cloud infrastructure consumer-created or acquiredapplications created using programming languages and tools supported bythe provider. The consumer does not manage or control the underlyingcloud infrastructure including networks, servers, operating systems, orstorage, but has control over the deployed applications and possiblyapplication hosting environment configurations.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): the capability provided to theconsumer is to provision processing, storage, networks, and otherfundamental computing resources where the consumer is able to deploy andrun arbitrary software, which can include operating systems andapplications. The consumer does not manage or control the underlyingcloud infrastructure but has control over operating systems, storage,deployed applications, and possibly limited control of select networkingcomponents (e.g., host firewalls).

Deployment Models are as follows:

Private cloud: the cloud infrastructure is operated solely for anorganization. It may be managed by the organization or a third party andmay exist on-premises or off-premises.

Community cloud: the cloud infrastructure is shared by severalorganizations and supports a specific community that has shared concerns(e.g., mission, security requirements, policy, and complianceconsiderations). It may be managed by the organizations or a third partyand may exist on-premises or off-premises.

Public cloud: the cloud infrastructure is made available to the generalpublic or a large industry group and is owned by an organization sellingcloud services.

Hybrid cloud: the cloud infrastructure is a composition of two or moreclouds (private, community, or public) that remain unique entities butare bound together by standardized or proprietary technology thatenables data and application portability (e.g., cloud bursting forload-balancing between clouds).

A cloud computing environment is service oriented with a focus onstatelessness, low coupling, modularity, and semantic interoperability.At the heart of cloud computing is an infrastructure comprising anetwork of interconnected nodes.

Referring now to FIG. 1, a schematic of an example of a cloud computingnode is shown. Cloud computing node 10 is only one example of a suitablecloud computing node and is not intended to suggest any limitation as tothe scope of use or functionality of embodiments of the inventiondescribed herein. Regardless, cloud computing node 10 is capable ofbeing implemented and/or performing any of the functionality set forthhereinabove.

In cloud computing node 10 there is a computer system/server 12, whichis operational with numerous other general purpose or special purposecomputing system environments or configurations. Examples of well-knowncomputing systems, environments, and/or configurations that may besuitable for use with computer system/server 12 include, but are notlimited to, personal computer systems, server computer systems, thinclients, thick clients, hand-held or laptop devices, multiprocessorsystems, microprocessor-based systems, set top boxes, programmableconsumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputer systems, mainframecomputer systems, and distributed cloud computing environments thatinclude any of the above systems or devices, and the like.

Computer system/server 12 may be described in the general context ofcomputer system-executable instructions, such as program modules, beingexecuted by a computer system. Generally, program modules may includeroutines, programs, objects, components, logic, data structures, and soon that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract datatypes. Computer system/server 12 may be practiced in distributed cloudcomputing environments where tasks are performed by remote processingdevices that are linked through a communications network. In adistributed cloud computing environment, program modules may be locatedin both local and remote computer system storage media including memorystorage devices.

As shown in FIG. 1, computer system/server 12 in cloud computing node 10is shown in the form of a general-purpose computing device. Thecomponents of computer system/server 12 may include, but are not limitedto, one or more processors or processing units 16, a system memory 28,and a bus 18 that couples various system components including systemmemory 28 to processor 16.

Bus 18 represents one or more of any of several types of bus structures,including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, anaccelerated graphics port, and a processor or local bus using any of avariety of bus architectures. By way of example, and not limitation,such architectures include Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus,Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, Enhanced ISA (EISA) bus, VideoElectronics Standards Association (VESA) local bus, and PeripheralComponent Interconnects (PCI) bus.

Computer system/server 12 typically includes a variety of computersystem readable media. Such media may be any available media that isaccessible by computer system/server 12, and it includes both volatileand non-volatile media, removable and non-removable media.

System memory 28 can include computer system readable media in the formof volatile memory, such as random access memory (RAM) 30 and/or cachememory 32. Computer system/server 12 may further include otherremovable/non-removable, volatile/non-volatile computer system storagemedia. By way of example only, storage system 34 can be provided forreading from and writing to a non-removable, non-volatile magnetic media(not shown and typically called a “hard drive”). Although not shown, amagnetic disk drive for reading from and writing to a removable,non-volatile magnetic disk (e.g., a “floppy disk”), and an optical diskdrive for reading from or writing to a removable, non-volatile opticaldisk such as a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or other optical media can be provided.In such instances, each can be connected to bus 18 by one or more datamedia interfaces. As will be further depicted and described below,system memory 28 may include at least one program product having a set(e.g., at least one) of program modules that are configured to carry outthe functions of embodiments of the invention.

Program/utility 40, having a set (at least one) of program modules 42,may be stored in system memory 28 by way of example, and not limitation,as well as an operating system, one or more application programs, otherprogram modules, and program data. Each of the operating system, one ormore application programs, other program modules, and program data orsome combination thereof, may include an implementation of a networkingenvironment. Program modules 42 generally carry out the functions and/ormethodologies of embodiments of the invention as described herein.

Computer system/server 12 may also communicate with one or more externaldevices 14 such as a keyboard, a pointing device, a display 24, etc.;one or more devices that enable a user to interact with computersystem/server 12; and/or any devices (e.g., network card, modem, etc.)that enable computer system/server 12 to communicate with one or moreother computing devices. Such communication can occur via Input/Output(I/O) interfaces 22. Still yet, computer system/server 12 cancommunicate with one or more networks such as a local area network(LAN), a general wide area network (WAN), and/or a public network (e.g.,the Internet) via network adapter 20. As depicted, network adapter 20communicates with the other components of computer system/server 12 viabus 18. It should be understood that although not shown, other hardwareand/or software components could be used in conjunction with computersystem/server 12. Examples, include, but are not limited to: microcode,device drivers, redundant processing units, external disk drive arrays,RAID systems, tape drives, and data archival storage systems, etc.

In the context of the present invention, and as one of skill in the artwill appreciate, various components depicted in FIG. 1 may be located ina moving vehicle. For example, some of the processing and data storagecapabilities associated with mechanisms of the illustrated embodimentsmay take place locally via local processing components, while the samecomponents are connected via a network to remotely located, distributedcomputing data processing and storage components to accomplish variouspurposes of the present invention. Again, as will be appreciated by oneof ordinary skill in the art, the present illustration is intended toconvey only a subset of what may be an entire connected network ofdistributed computing components that accomplish various inventiveaspects collectively.

Referring now to FIG. 2, illustrative cloud computing environment 50 isdepicted. As shown, cloud computing environment 50 comprises one or morecloud computing nodes 10 with which local computing devices used bycloud consumers, such as, for example, personal digital assistant (PDA)or cellular telephone 54A, desktop computer 54B, laptop computer 54C,and/or automobile computer system 54N may communicate. Nodes 10 maycommunicate with one another. They may be grouped (not shown) physicallyor virtually, in one or more networks, such as Private, Community,Public, or Hybrid clouds as described hereinabove, or a combinationthereof. This allows cloud computing environment 50 to offerinfrastructure, platforms and/or software as services for which a cloudconsumer does not need to maintain resources on a local computingdevice. It is understood that the types of computing devices 54A-N shownin FIG. 2 are intended to be illustrative only and that computing nodes10 and cloud computing environment 50 can communicate with any type ofcomputerized device over any type of network and/or network addressableconnection (e.g., using a web browser).

Referring now to FIG. 3, a set of functional abstraction layers providedby cloud computing environment 50 (FIG. 2) is shown. It should beunderstood in advance that the components, layers, and functions shownin FIG. 3 are intended to be illustrative only and embodiments of theinvention are not limited thereto. As depicted, the following layers andcorresponding functions are provided:

Device layer 55 includes physical and/or virtual devices, embedded withand/or standalone electronics, sensors, actuators, and other objects toperform various tasks in a cloud computing environment 50. Each of thedevices in the device layer 55 incorporates networking capability toother functional abstraction layers such that information obtained fromthe devices may be provided thereto, and/or information from the otherabstraction layers may be provided to the devices. In one embodiment,the various devices inclusive of the device layer 55 may incorporate anetwork of entities collectively known as the “internet of things”(IoT). Such a network of entities allows for intercommunication,collection, and dissemination of data to accomplish a great variety ofpurposes, as one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate.

Device layer 55 as shown includes sensor 52, actuator 53, “learning”thermostat 56 with integrated processing, sensor, and networkingelectronics, camera 57, controllable household outlet/receptacle 58, andcontrollable electrical switch 59 as shown. Other possible devices mayinclude, but are not limited to various additional sensor devices,networking devices, electronics devices (such as a remote controldevice), additional actuator devices, so called “smart” appliances suchas a refrigerator or washer/dryer, and a wide variety of other possibleinterconnected objects.

Hardware and software layer 60 includes hardware and softwarecomponents. Examples of hardware components include: mainframes 61; RISC(Reduced Instruction Set Computer) architecture based servers 62;servers 63; blade servers 64; storage devices 65; and networks andnetworking components 66. In some embodiments, software componentsinclude network application server software 67 and database software 68.

Virtualization layer 70 provides an abstraction layer from which thefollowing examples of virtual entities may be provided: virtual servers71; virtual storage 72; virtual networks 73, including virtual privatenetworks; virtual applications and operating systems 74; and virtualclients 75.

In one example, management layer 80 may provide the functions describedbelow. Resource provisioning 81 provides dynamic procurement ofcomputing resources and other resources that are utilized to performtasks within the cloud computing environment. Metering and Pricing 82provides cost tracking as resources are utilized within the cloudcomputing environment, and billing or invoicing for consumption of theseresources. In one example, these resources may comprise applicationsoftware licenses. Security provides identity verification for cloudconsumers and tasks, as well as protection for data and other resources.User portal 83 provides access to the cloud computing environment forconsumers and system administrators. Service level management 84provides cloud computing resource allocation and management such thatrequired service levels are met. Service Level Agreement (SLA) planningand fulfillment 85 provides pre-arrangement for, and procurement of,cloud computing resources for which a future requirement is anticipatedin accordance with an SLA.

Workloads layer 90 provides examples of functionality for which thecloud computing environment may be utilized. Examples of workloads andfunctions which may be provided from this layer include: mapping andnavigation 91; software development and lifecycle management 92; virtualclassroom education delivery 93; data analytics processing 94;transaction processing 95; and, in the context of the illustratedembodiments of the present invention, various information extraction andaggregation functions 96. In addition, information extraction andaggregation functions 96 may include such operations as analyzingcertain data and injection of the certain data into applicationcontainer operations as will be further described. One of ordinary skillin the art will appreciate that the information extraction andaggregation functions 96 may also work in conjunction with otherportions of the various abstractions layers, such as those in hardwareand software 60, virtualization 70, management 80, and other workloads90 (such as data analytics processing 94, for example) to accomplish thevarious purposes of the illustrated embodiments of the presentinvention.

Turning to FIG. 4, a combination block/flowchart diagram 400 depictingexemplary systems for injecting host information into an applicationcontainer in accordance with one embodiment of the invention isdepicted. As illustrated in FIG. 4, the system may include anapplication container control agent 406 for instantiating runningapplication containers listed as 426A, 426B, and 426 n, based onpredefined application templates listed as 404A, 404B, and 404 n. Thesystem may also include a runtime information injection agent 412 thatdynamically collects information of cluster host 402 and calculatesinformation to be injected into application containers 426A-n andconsumed by their applications.

In addition, and as will be described in detail below, the applicationcontainer control agent 406 may include and/or interact with anapplication container engine 408 to start and manage applicationcontainers 426A-n. The application container control agent 406 may alsoinclude and/or interact with a container template library 410 to storeand provide reusable container templates, that may include software andconfigurations that enable to run application containers based on thetemplates. In certain embodiments, instead of being an integralcomponent, the application container engine 408 may be an externalbinary that is invoked by the application container control agent 406.Additionally, or alternatively, the container template library 410 maybe an external repository for hosting container templates, and thesecontainer templates may be retrieved by the application containercontrol agent 406 directly, or by the application container engine 408.

In certain embodiments, as shown with reference to numeral 1, theapplication container control agent 406 will instantiate an applicationcontainer 426A-n based on an application template 404A-n (step 450).Such application templates 404A-n are fundamentally different fromcontainer templates hosted in the container template library 410. Aswill be described, while a container template packages necessary staticinformation, such as the software of an application, its requiredlibraries, configuration information, and a list of predefined users,the application template 404A-n specifies the run time behavior of theapplication container 426A-n, such as the execution user of theapplication, and further information required for launching anapplication container.

In some embodiments, the application container control agent 406 willdelegate to a runtime information injection agent 412 the task ofperforming necessary information collection and calculations, asillustrated referencing numeral 2. The behavior of the runtimeinformation injection agent 412 may be configured by an injection agentprofile 414 and executed by information aggregation process 416. Theinformation aggregation process 416 combines information collected froma transient application container 418 and information collected from thehost 402 (step 452). As referenced in numeral 3, the informationaggregation process 416 launches the transient application container418. This transient application container 418 generally utilizes thesame container template as would be used by the working applicationcontainers 426A-n (step 454). The container template is generally aninert, immutable file that can serve as a snapshot of a givenapplication container. These container templates can become large insize, and therefore, in certain embodiments, such a container templatecan be divided into common components, and different container templatesmay share a same set of common components.

In some embodiments, information of interest can be extracted from thetransient application container 418 as referenced in numeral 4.Container specific data is collected from the transient applicationcontainer 418, which serves as the information source that simulates agiven container's run time environment based on a specific containertemplate. The run time information injection agent 412 uses thetransient application container 418 to retrieve this necessary run timeinformation (step 456). This information can be cached 420 in a storagemanaged by the run time information injection agent 412 (step 458),referenced as numeral 5.

Additionally, or alternatively, to make sure the disk consumption of thecached data is within a reasonable bound, the information aggregationprocess 416 may delegate a space guard to prune off unnecessary files.The criterion and purging algorithm for such files can be furtherspecified in injection agent profile 414. The purging algorithm mayinclude several heuristic methods, such as Last-In-Last-Out (LILO),First-In-First-Out (FIFO), Least Recently Used (LRU), Most Recently Used(MRU), etc.

In some examples where the recency of this information is critical, atime guard component can additionally be enabled in the informationaggregation process 416. This time guard component can be implemented inthe simplest form as a timer (i.e., relying on an age of theinformation/data), or in more advanced form such as to extrapolateinformation based on a time-dependent logic. For example, in oneembodiment, a certain property of a running container may be linear totime with a different initial value. This time guard may compute themost up-to-date value of a running application container 426A-n based onthe cached information 420, and feed this data back to the run timeinformation injection agent 412.

In some embodiments, as referenced by numeral 6, host information iscollected from a host information data source 422, and such sourcesinclude, but, are not limited to, host configuration files, operatingsystem information, local databases, environment variables, shareddirectories, running processes or commands, that provide data of thehost environment (step 460). The information aggregation process 416consumes the cached information 420 and host information, optionallyaccording to the specification of the injection agent profile 414,and/or relevant section in the application template 404A-n as directedby the application container control agent 406, and combine theseinformation items according to a prescribed logic. The combined(aggregated) information is then presented, for instance, in the form ofa files termed as “Injected Info” 424A-n, and stored in the storagemanaged by the run time information injection agent 412, as referencedby numeral 7 (step 462).

Finally, the application container control agent 406 may then utilizethe injected information files 424A-n to provision the workingapplication containers 426A-n as referenced in numeral 8 (step 464). Forcertain application containers 426A-n having shared volumes on thecluster host 402, these injected information files 424A-n can be mountedinto the working application container as auxiliary data volumes. Inother examples, injected information files 424A-n can be presented as anadditional common component into a container template, and new workingcontainers may be started based on the new container template.

Continuing, FIG. 5 is a block diagram depicting a relevant datastructure 500 of the application container control agent 406 inaccordance with aspects of the present invention. As illustrated in FIG.5, each application is represented by an application template 404A-n.The application container control agent 406 must properly schedule,orchestrate, and terminate the application containers 426A-n accordingto the specification in a given application template 404A-n. Fields of ageneric application template 404A-n described herein, consist of thefollowing data fields:

Container Template: The container template indicates the requiredruntime dependencies and libraries of the application container 426A-n.Container templates can be shared among different applications where theproperty of reusability can be utilized, as will be discussed following.

Container Engine: The container engine indicates the tooling that willcreate operating environment based on the container template for theapplication logic. The container engine may be a local executablecreating running container instances directly. The container engine mayalso take the form of a local proxy that delegates work to a remoteexecutable that instantiates the application containers 426A-n.

Command: The command indicates the application-specific procedure orprogram orthogonal to the running environment provided by the containerengine based on a container template. This command may serve as theentry point of starting the actual application inside the container.Additionally, or alternatively, this command can be used as a vehicle ininvestigating the run time environment inside the container.

Additional data fields, described herein, are necessary to the examplesof run time information injection. As elaborated in the next section,they control the content of injected information, and provide hints forthe injection agent behavior.

Injection Agent: The injection agent comprises the component thatgathers, processes, aggregates and presents the required informationthat will later be consumed by the application, or creates runningenvironment for the running application.

Aggregation Mode: The aggregation mode indicates the action of theinjection agent when processing information from both the applicationcontainer and host environment. The potential values include, but arenot limited to “merge” and “overwrite”. Additional modes can be definedwith respect to different ratios between the importance ofcontainer-specific information and host-generated information.

Execution User: The execution user indicates which container user willexecute the command in the application container 426A-n. In someexamples, the command may comprise executing a program or binary orscript located in a shared volume. Access control may not be enforcedfor such a container user, as either this container user does not havesufficient privilege as host user or the user supersedes the privilegesintended for the corresponding host user. As will be described further,the aforementioned problem can be addressed elegantly by the run timeinjection system having the right set of information accumulated.

Host Information Metric: The host information metric indicates thetarget information that is intended to be harvested from the hostinformation data source 422. In some embodiments, these metrics maycomprise a list of keys to a specific table in a database for theinjection agent to retrieve or may comprise an information template forthe injection agent to fill in.

Advancing, FIG. 6 is a flowchart diagram of an exemplary method 600 forimplementing an application container control agent logic, in accordancewith aspects of the present invention. The method 600 illustratesoperations the application container control agent 406 may perform.Starting at step 602, a generic application container control agent 406may use an application template 404A-n as the instruction to specify theorganization, scheduling and dependencies between different workingapplication containers 426A-n (step 604). These working applicationcontainers 426A-n can be coordinated to perform a unified task and beexposed as a single unit of work, or application.

A determination is made whether information is to be injected into theapplication container 426A-n (step 606). When no inject informationsection is specified, the application container 426A-n is created andexecuted, as specified in an associated application template 404A-n(step 614). For application containers 404A-n which require a lengthyamount of time to process its predetermined job, or in certain cases,are expected to run infinitely (such as web servers), the applicationcontainer control agent 406 may also take over the responsibility ofmonitoring the health status of running containers. In some examples,high availability of container service is of great importance, such thatthe application container control agent 406 may also need to providerecover mechanisms should any given container fail.

Returning to step 606, embodiments that implement the behavior discussedabove may be extended to support run time information injection, sincethe application container control agent 406, by design, is able tocontrol the starting sequence and timing of working applicationcontainers 426A-n. When a piece of injection information is required asindicated in the application template 404A-n, the application containercontrol agent 406 configures the injection agent profile 414 first toset or overwrite the default state of the runtime information injectionagent 412, to properly reflect the application context and control orfine-tune the injection behavior (step 608).

Upon completion of the configuration, the application container controlagent 406 delegates the retrieval of required information to the runtime information injection agent 412 (step 610). Depending on the actualimplementation, the run time information injection agent 412 may be anintegral part of the application container control agent 406, or the runtime information injection agent 412 may comprise an external pluginthat abides the protocol that enables the application container controlagent 406 to properly retrieve required information.

When the run time information injection agent 412 has properlycollected, calculated and prepared the required information, it willsignal the application container control agent 406 to proceed. Beforestarting the application container 426A-n and monitoring the workload,the application container control agent 406 may need to update theapplication template 404A-n with a new set of information (step 612).For example, in certain embodiments where a host volume can be shared byapplication containers 426A-n, one or more volumes may be added for theapplication containers 426A-n so that the information can be properlyinjected. The injected information is used for creating and starting theapplication container 426A-n, as specified in an associated applicationtemplate 404A-n (step 614).

FIG. 7 is a flowchart diagram of an exemplary method 700 forimplementing the injection agent, in accordance with embodiments of theinformation aggregation process. The method 700 starts (step 702) with amode selection process. Such selection enables the run time informationinjection agent 412 to have a fine-tuned aggregation behavior and putsweight on the importance of the different sources of extractedinformation. A determination of this mode selection (whether tooverwrite or merge information) is performed at step 704.

In some examples, upon extracting information from the host 402 (step706), this information extracted from the host 402 may be consideredcrucial while the container-specific extracted information is consideredinsignificant. In such case, container information may be overwrittendirectly with the calculated injected information (step 708) andinjected into the application container 426A-n (step 716). Hence thismode is named “overwrite”.

Returning to step 704, other examples require knowledge of both the host402 and the given container, and both sets of information need to bemerged together. One instance of this example is consistent with accesscontrol enforcement. While a container application has its own userspace, the shared volume from host will contaminate container user spacewith host access control rules. In cases where correctly enforcing bothhost access rules and container access rules are important, the runningcontainer needs to be aware of both the user space of the residing hostand its own user space. This information must be merged together andexist within the application container 426A-n before its execution. Insuch case, a “merge” mode algorithm is performed.

When performing the merge mode operation, a transient applicationcontainer 418 is launched to serve as the prototype container andprovide the run time information injection agent 412 and the applicationcontainer control agent 406 the opportunity to investigate inside thecontainer spaces (step 710). Depending on the actual implementation ofsuch temporary container launch, the run time information injectionagent 412 and the application container control agent 406 may sample theinformation from the process space, user space, mount space, interprocess communication space, network space, and/or Unix TimesharingSystem (UTS) space. Further, depending on the specification of theapplication container 426A-n, the run time information injection agent412 may additionally also inspect the transient container 418 toretrieve the information about resource reservations, the default Linuxcapabilities and any populated environment settings for the processesrunning within. After a set of information aforementioned is collected,the run time information injection agent 412 may choose to cache thisinformation for future reference. Corresponding host-sourced informationis additionally collected and may be optionally cached (step 712).Finally, both sets of information are merged together and are saved intoa file (i.e., injected information files 424A-n) (step 714) to beinjected (step 716). Here too, this injected information may also becached for future reference.

Concluding, FIG. 8 is a flowchart diagram of an exemplary method 800 foraggregated information calculation and injection for applicationcontainers by one or more processors, again in accordance with aspectsof the present invention.

The method 800 begins when, prior to commencing execution of anapplication inside a working container, a temporary container having anequivalent application template as the working container is started(step 802). Relevant information is extracted from inside the temporarycontainer and relevant information is additionally extracted from a hostassociated with the application (step 804). Aggregated information iscalculated based on the extracted relevant information from inside thetemporary container and from the host (step 806). The calculatedaggregated information is then injected into the working containerthereby efficiently propagating configuration attributes of theapplication into the working container (step 808).

The present invention may be a system, a method, and/or a computerprogram product. The computer program product may include a computerreadable storage medium (or media) having computer readable programinstructions thereon for causing a processor to carry out aspects of thepresent invention.

The computer readable storage medium can be a tangible device that canretain and store instructions for use by an instruction executiondevice. The computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but isnot limited to, an electronic storage device, a magnetic storage device,an optical storage device, an electromagnetic storage device, asemiconductor storage device, or any suitable combination of theforegoing. A non-exhaustive list of more specific examples of thecomputer readable storage medium includes the following: a portablecomputer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), aread-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROMor Flash memory), a static random access memory (SRAM), a portablecompact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD),a memory stick, a floppy disk, a mechanically encoded device such aspunch-cards or raised structures in a groove having instructionsrecorded thereon, and any suitable combination of the foregoing. Acomputer readable storage medium, as used herein, is not to be construedas being transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freelypropagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves propagatingthrough a waveguide or other transmission media (e.g., light pulsespassing through a fiber-optic cable), or electrical signals transmittedthrough a wire.

Computer readable program instructions described herein can bedownloaded to respective computing/processing devices from a computerreadable storage medium or to an external computer or external storagedevice via a network, for example, the Internet, a local area network, awide area network and/or a wireless network. The network may comprisecopper transmission cables, optical transmission fibers, wirelesstransmission, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers and/oredge servers. A network adapter card or network interface in eachcomputing/processing device receives computer readable programinstructions from the network and forwards the computer readable programinstructions for storage in a computer readable storage medium withinthe respective computing/processing device.

Computer readable program instructions for carrying out operations ofthe present invention may be assembler instructions,instruction-set-architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions,machine dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions,state-setting data, or either source code or object code written in anycombination of one or more programming languages, including an objectoriented programming language such as Smalltalk, C++ or the like, andconventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C”programming language or similar programming languages. The computerreadable program instructions may execute entirely on the user'scomputer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone softwarepackage, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computeror entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario,the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through anytype of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide areanetwork (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer(for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).In some embodiments, electronic circuitry including, for example,programmable logic circuitry, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), orprogrammable logic arrays (PLA) may execute the computer readableprogram instructions by utilizing state information of the computerreadable program instructions to personalize the electronic circuitry,in order to perform aspects of the present invention.

Aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of theinvention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented bycomputer readable program instructions.

These computer readable program instructions may be provided to aprocessor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, orother programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, suchthat the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computeror other programmable data processing apparatus, create means forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowcharts and/or blockdiagram block or blocks. These computer readable program instructionsmay also be stored in a computer readable storage medium that can directa computer, a programmable data processing apparatus, and/or otherdevices to function in a particular manner, such that the computerreadable storage medium having instructions stored therein comprises anarticle of manufacture including instructions which implement aspects ofthe function/act specified in the flowcharts and/or block diagram blockor blocks.

The computer readable program instructions may also be loaded onto acomputer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other deviceto cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer,other programmable apparatus or other device to produce a computerimplemented process, such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer, other programmable apparatus, or other device implement thefunctions/acts specified in the flowcharts and/or block diagram block orblocks.

The flowcharts and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods, and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in theflowcharts or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portionof instructions, which comprises one or more executable instructions forimplementing the specified logical function(s). In some alternativeimplementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of theorder noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in successionmay, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks maysometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon thefunctionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of theblock diagrams and/or flowchart illustrations, and combinations ofblocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustrations, can beimplemented by special purpose hardware-based systems that perform thespecified functions or acts or carry out combinations of special purposehardware and computer instructions.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method for aggregated information calculation and injection for application containers, by a processor device, comprising: prior to commencing execution of an application inside a working container: starting a temporary container having an equivalent application template or container template as the working container; instantiating and executing a first instance of the application inside the temporary container; extracting relevant information obtained during execution of the first application instance from inside the temporary container and relevant information from a host associated with the application; calculating aggregated information based on the extracted relevant information from inside the temporary container and from the host, wherein an importance of each of the relevant information extracted from inside the temporary container and the relevant information extracted from the host is weighted, and wherein upon calculating the aggregated information, one of an overwrite mode selection and a merge mode selection is used when performing the aggregating depending on the weight of the importance determined; and commencing execution of a second instance of the application and injecting the calculated aggregated information into the working container.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the calculated aggregated information comprises configuration information, run time information and characteristics of the application; and is stored by an information injection agent; and the application template comprises a specification of the container template, information for launching one of more of the application containers based on the container template, and further information.
 3. The method of claim 2, further including performing at least one of: caching the relevant information extracted from inside the temporary container; and determining a disk consumption of the cached relevant information, wherein if the disk consumption exceeds a predetermined size threshold, using certain heuristics to exclude less required cached information to bring the disk consumption of the cached relevant information below the predetermined size threshold.
 4. The method of claim 1, further including, while calculating the aggregated information, enabling a time guard component to ensure the relevant information extracted from inside the temporary container is current by performing at least one of: implementing a timer associated with a data age of the relevant information extracted from the temporary container; and extrapolating certain properties of the relevant information extracted from inside the temporary container according to a time-dependent logic.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the relevant information extracted from the host is collected from a host information data source, including at least one of: host static configuration files, local databases, environment variables, shared directories, and running processes or commands that provide data of the host.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein injecting the calculated aggregated information into the working container includes mounting the calculated aggregated information using data volumes into the working container; or providing the calculated aggregated information as a component in a container template to be used when starting a new working container.
 7. A system for aggregated information calculation and injection for application containers, the system comprising: a processor device executing instructions stored in a memory, wherein the processor device, prior to commencing execution of an application inside a working container: starts a temporary container having an equivalent application template or container template as the working container; instantiates and executes a first instance of the application inside the temporary container; extracts relevant information obtained during execution of the first application instance from inside the temporary container and relevant information from a host associated with the application; calculates aggregated information based on the extracted relevant information from inside the temporary container and from the host, wherein an importance of each of the relevant information extracted from inside the temporary container and the relevant information extracted from the host is weighted, and wherein upon calculating the aggregated information, one of an overwrite mode selection and a merge mode selection is used when performing the aggregating depending on the weight of the importance determined; and commences execution of a second instance of the application and injects the calculated aggregated information into the working container.
 8. The system of claim 7, wherein the calculated aggregated information comprises configuration information, run time information and characteristics of the application; and is stored by an information injection agent; and the application template comprises a specification of the container template, information for launching one of more of the application containers based on the container template, and further information.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein the processor device performs at least one of: caching the relevant information extracted from inside the temporary container; and determining a disk consumption of the cached relevant information, wherein if the disk consumption exceeds a predetermined size threshold, using certain heuristics to exclude less required cached information to bring the disk consumption of the cached relevant information below the predetermined size threshold.
 10. The system of claim 7, wherein the processor device, while calculating the aggregated information, enables a time guard component to ensure the relevant information extracted from inside the temporary container is current by performing at least one of: implementing a timer associated with a data age of the relevant information extracted from the temporary container; and extrapolating certain properties of the relevant information extracted from inside the temporary container according to a time-dependent logic.
 11. The system of claim 7, wherein the relevant information extracted from the host is collected from a host information data source, including at least one of: host static configuration files, local databases, environment variables, shared directories, and running processes or commands that provide data of the host.
 12. The system of claim 7, wherein injecting the calculated aggregated information into the working container includes mounting the calculated aggregated information using data volumes into the working container; or providing the calculated aggregated information as a component in a container template to be used when starting a new working container.
 13. A computer program product for aggregated information calculation and injection for application containers, by a processor device, the computer program product embodied on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code portions stored therein, the computer-readable program code portions comprising: an executable portion that, prior to commencing execution of an application inside a working container: starts a temporary container having an equivalent application template or container template as the working container; instantiates and executes a first instance of the application inside the temporary container; extracts relevant information obtained during execution of the first application instance from inside the temporary container and relevant information from a host associated with the application; calculates aggregated information based on the extracted relevant information from inside the temporary container and from the host, wherein an importance of each of the relevant information extracted from inside the temporary container and the relevant information extracted from the host is weighted, and wherein upon calculating the aggregated information, one of an overwrite mode selection and a merge mode selection is used when performing the aggregating depending on the weight of the importance determined; and commences execution of a second instance of the application and injects the calculated aggregated information into the working container.
 14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the calculated aggregated information comprises configuration information, run time information and characteristics of the application; and is stored by an information injection agent; and the application template comprises a specification of the container template, information for launching one of more of the application containers based on the container template, and further information.
 15. The computer program product of claim 14, further including an executable portion that performs at least one of: caching the relevant information extracted from inside the temporary container; and determining a disk consumption of the cached relevant information, wherein if the disk consumption exceeds a predetermined size threshold, using certain heuristics to exclude less required cached information to bring the disk consumption of the cached relevant information below the predetermined size threshold.
 16. The computer program product of claim 13, further including an executable portion that, while calculating the aggregated information, enables a time guard component to ensure the relevant information extracted from inside the temporary container is current by performing at least one of: implementing a timer associated with a data age of the relevant information extracted from the temporary container; and extrapolating certain properties of the relevant information extracted from inside the temporary container according to a time-dependent logic.
 17. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the relevant information extracted from the host is collected from a host information data source, including at least one of: host static configuration files, local databases, environment variables, shared directories, and running processes or commands that provide data of the host.
 18. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein injecting the calculated aggregated information into the working container includes mounting the calculated aggregated information using data volumes into the working container; or providing the calculated aggregated information as a component in a container template to be used when starting a new working container. 